Scientists in Hong Kong have discovered tiny, cube-shaped box jellyfish in a brackish shrimp pond that are completely unknown to science.
The diminutive jellies have a completely transparent and colorless body, or bell, as well as 12 tentacles ending in small, paddle-like structures that enable the critters to speed through water faster than most other jellyfish species.
Like other box jellies — a group of Cnidarians that includes the Australian box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri), the world’s most venomous marine animal, according to the National Ocean Service(opens in new tab) — the newly described jellies have 24 eyes arranged in clusters of six around its cubic bell.
“This box jellyfish connects the base of its tentacles and its bell with a flat base that looks like a boat paddle, making it distinct from other common jellyfish,” Qiu Jianwen(opens in new tab), a professor in the Department of Biology at Hong Kong Baptist University who led the research, said in a video(opens in new tab). “Another feature of the box jellyfish is that it has six eyes located on each side of its body.”
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Image and video credit: Hong Kong Baptist University screenshot from hong kong baptist university on YouTube
